Chuck Pagano doubts he will be back with Colts in 2016

There has been quite a bit of drama surrounding Chuck Pagano of the Indianapolis Colts this year and it appears that he is on his way out of town. After leading the Colts to three straight seasons of improvement, Pro Football Talk is reporting that Pagano doesn’t expect to be back on the sidelines for the Colts next season.

Rumors have been swirling that general manager Ryan Grigson and Pagano have had a falling out and there is major tension between them.

Assuming that report is the case, the Colts are going to choose Grigson over Pagano any day of the week. They have plenty of other options that they can look at to be their head coach and quite a few that likely would be better head coaches than Pagano has been. While he has helped lead the Colts to being a Super Bowl contender, they still haven’t been able to finish off some games that they should have.

Part of that has to do with key mistakes on the field, but it also has to do with coaching. He isn’t the best at preparing game plans and he simply doesn’t know how to get his team to put away games down the stretch.

One thing that Pagano does bring to the table that is much better than most NFL head coaches is the motivation factor. He is the definition of a players’ coach, which is both a good and bad thing. Many in Indianapolis believe he is too close to the players and doesn’t actually have a voice of command in the locker room and is instead viewed as a friend and part of the actual team.

That can’t happen as a head coach and Pagano hasn’t done a good job of changing that perception about him.

Expect to see the Colts move on from him this coming offseason after the 2015 campaign. They are going to be searching to hire a big name that can take them to the next level, especially if their struggles continue this year. Indianapolis has started the season off 0-2 and there is a chance that Pagano might be fired during the season if they can’t get things going.